Steven Petrov
The Paw Print
Spain, Italy, and Brazil have respectively won the last 3 World Cups, and will bring their best to the World Cup finals in Brazil next summer, either to defend what is already theirs’ (Spain) or to win what was taken from them in either Germany 2006 (Brazil) or in South Africa 2010 (Italy). Brazil, as we talked about in a subsequent article, lost their World Cup title in 2006 where Italy dominated the scene. Similarly Italy experienced even bigger disappointment in South Africa in 2010, which was by far their worst campaign so far. The team was eliminated in the first round by placing 4th in their group. We talked about the hopes of “Selesao” for the upcoming World Cup in the previous article, on the other hand Spain will be the topic of the next article and this one will focus mainly on Italy’s history within the competition, results, and more importantly expectations for the upcoming Mundial.
The “Azzuri” (Italy) have always been a major presence in the World Cup competition ever since the day of its foundation. The 4 time winners and their famous “Catenaccio” – defensive tactical system, established themselves as one of the toughest opponents throughout the years. As every other team, Italy has also had its strong and weak periods and performances. In general they have always had top class players, and have always been one of the top teams in the world. Italy declined to participate in the first World Cup in 1930 held in Uruguay, due to some inside problems and because of the location of the competition. However, Italy was the host of the second World Cup in 1934, which the “Squadra Azzura” (Italy) won by beating the mighty team of Czechoslovakia in the final with 2:1. At that point of time Italy’s biggest “star” player was Giuseppe Meazza, who is largely known as one of the best Italian players in history with 33 goals in 53 games with the national team and with the impressive 241 goals in 348 games with FC Internazionale. Meazza’s phenomenal performance and Silvio Piola’s 5 goals inspired the “Squadra” for second consecutive World Cup title in 1938 in France. After these two incredible performances, the Italian national team was about to face a long period of time without winning the most prestigious international competition similar to Brazil’s 24-year struggle from 1970 to 1994. However the Italians struggled for almost twice the time that the Brazilians spent away from the 1st place, a total of 44 years from 1938 to 1982. Throughout that time the “Azzuri” came close of winning the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, but lost the final against the mighty “Selesao” led by “The King” Pele, with 4:1.
The 44-year Italian nightmare in the World Cup ended in Spain in 1982. The “Squadra Azzura,” led by the tournaments’ top goal scorer and best player Paolo Rossi, finished the tournament strong after having a difficult start in the group stage. Honestly, Italy was far from the promising start they expected tying all three of the teams in its group (Cameroon, Poland and Peru). Italian football players were having some major problems regarding multiple accusations of illegal betting and match fixing, in the Italian Seria A, that eventually led to multiple suspensions from both national and club team. However, with much better performance, the Italians reached the final where they beat West Germany with 3:1. The unfortunate Italians were now about to wait for another 24 years before they could hold the World Cup in their hands again.
In the last 15 years Italy’s peak performance and quality of play within the World Cup competition was definitely in Germany in 2006. Starting off strong by finishing 1st in Group E and having a relatively “easy” way all the way up to the semi-finals, facing teams like Australia and Ukraine; Italy’s first real test was at the semi-finals where they faced Germany. The result stayed 0:0 through the whole game, leading to an extra time period, which also stayed scoreless until the 118 minute. Fabio Grosso and Alessandro Del Piero each scored in the last 2 minutes of the extra time, giving Italy the win. This was a major success for the “Squadra Azzura” because, by winning their 4th World Cup title, the Italians placed right behind the 5-time winners Brazil, endangering their record. Unfortunately for the “Azzuri” they don’t have pleasant memories from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. They finished last in their group and were embarrassingly eliminated from the competition in the first round. This is why Italy is more motivated than anyone else to show the world that what happened 3-4 years ago is in the past and that the “Squadra” will rise again to the place where they belong. The 2013 Confederations Cup this past summer showed a totally new image of the Italian team with new way of playing, a lot of passes, movement of the ball, and switching the point of the attack, which is definitely an indicator that Italy will try to go through the whole tournament next summer. Besides that the “Azzuri” have also been doing really well in their qualifying group (Group B). The Italians sealed their place in Brazil next year, this past Tuesday, September 10th with a 2:1 win against Czech Republic. Italy currently has 20 points and the closest team behind the “squadra” is Bulgaria with 13 points. With only two games left in the group and the first place been already taken, the furious “fight” will be for the second place, which currently Bulgaria is most likely looking to keep. However in the world of football (soccer) you never know what international surprise or sensation is waiting around the corner.
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